PH to continue UN help despite abductions

MANILA—The Philippines remains committed to deploying troops in UN peacekeeping hotspots despite the brief hostage-taking of 21 Filipino soldiers, who were welcomed back to freedom in Jordan with a traditional military feast, military officials said. The unarmed Filipino peacekeepers, who were riding in trucks, were abducted after providing water and food to other troops in southern Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights by one of the rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. After negotiations, they were freed on Jordan’s border and taken to a hotel in Amman, Philippine officials said.